Victor Hedman and Anthony Cirelli each registered a goal and an assist as the Tampa Bay Lightning held on to win 5-3 over the host Montreal Canadiens Sunday afternoon in the final NHL game before the 4 Nations Face-Off.
Nick Paul, Brayden Point and Zemgus Girgensons also scored for Tampa Bay in its fourth straight win. Girgensons’ goal, which proved to be the game-winner, was his first since April 2 of last season when he was with Buffalo. Jake Guentzel and Brandon Hagel each had two assists.
Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 32 shots to win his second straight start. The Lightning played without top scorer Nikita Kucherov (82 points), who was a late scratch due to a reported upper-body injury.
Brendan Gallagher tallied on the power play and at even strength, while Christian Dvorak scored career goal No. 99 as Montreal fell to 1-7-1 over its last nine games.
Jakub Dobes got the start for the Canadiens, but the rookie departed after surrendering three goals in 21:05 and lost his fourth straight (0-3-1). Sam Montembeault denied 11 of 12 shots in relief.
Tampa Bay opened the scoring about seven minutes into the game after Montreal’s Juraj Slafkovsky turned over the puck in the defensive end. Hagel then found Paul, who beat Dobes in front of the crease at 6:56.
Hedman increased the lead to 2-0 when he finished a three-on-one rush at 10:28 of the first, but Gallagher cut the lead in half late in the period after converting a drop-pass from Alex Newhook on Montreal’s third power play.
Point tied Guentzel for the league lead by scoring for the 13th time on the power play, making it 3-1 and chasing Dobes from the match 65 seconds into the second period.
The Lightning’s fourth line made it 4-1 at 6:43 of the second on Girgensons’ tally. Dvorak answered for the Canadiens six minutes later.
In the third, Gallagher cut the deficit to 4-3 at 9:19, but Montreal failed to find the equalizer with Montembeault pulled, and Cirelli sealed the win on an empty-netter with 16 seconds left.
–Field Level Media
